Rep. Blackburn Is Wrong on What Benefits Our Small Businesses

August 22, 2018

In response to Representative Marsha Blackburn’s latest campaign ad, Lenda Sherrell, state director of the Tennessee Small Business Alliance, released the following statement:

“The tax law passed by Representative Marsha Blackburn is a giveaway for the rich, not small businesses. Rep. Blackburn’s vote for the law will cost our country more than $1.5 trillion over the next decade which means even less funding for investments the middle-class needs for a better future. This expensive tax scam is rigged to favor the rich and big corporations while posing significant threats to Social Security, Medicare, TennCare and education.

“The benefits never trickle down. Rep. Blackburn has added trillions to the deficit by giving big corporations a huge 40 percent tax cut and has done little to nothing for working people and small business owners who face real rising costs. Instead of a making permanent a law that gives 83 percent of the cuts to the top 1 percent, that money should be used to invest in our public schools and infrastructure and bring down health-care costs. Tennessee’s nearly 600,000 small business owners would be better served had Rep. Blackburn supported legislation that strengthened the economic power of Tennessee’s real job creators.”

Background

The 2017 Republican Tax Act adds $1.5 trillion to the budget deficit over the next decade. [CBS News, 12/20/17]

In its revised deficit estimates, the Trump administration projects annual deficits will top $1 trillion in the 2019 budget year, climbing to $1.1 trillion, and remaining above $1 trillion for three years. [CBS News/AP, 8/10/18]

For the current budget year, which ends Sept. 30, the administration is now projecting a deficit of $890 billion. That would be up 33.7 percent from last year's deficit of $665.8 billion. [CBS News/AP, 8/10/18]

There are 589,546 small businesses in Tennessee representing 99.5% of all TN businesses. These businesses employ 1.1 million people. [U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, 2018 Small Business Profile]

PayChex sees wage and job growth slowdown at small businesses in June despite tax reform. Survey finds that 65% of small business owners do not expect to have the resources to give their workers a wage increase. [Accounting Today. 7/3/18]